Oscilloscope dealers in the US

And in a wider sense, as the human race -- parts of it at least -- create ever higher technology on top of the existing technology, even less knowledge will be demanded of the average person (which does depend on the average occupation, but it is more and more a service economy, so...). Which means, in Darwin's terms, the human race needs less average intelligence to survive, so in the span of perhaps just a few centuries (as always: assuming the lemmings don't nuke themselves first), the average human might, for the first time in history, have a reduced mental capacity. And then the smart people would tend to divide into a seperate class.

But you're probably closer, wars and "collapse of society" will probably muddle things up a good bit while this is happening and before this process has much time to work itself away.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @

Will the smart ones know how to spell "separate"??

Jim

-- "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, with chocolate in one hand and wine in the other, loudly proclaiming 'WOO HOO What a Ride!'"

--Unknown

Don't forget to look at Rigol. Word goes that they produce the low end range for Agilent.

--
Reply to nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
Bedrijven en winkels vindt U op www.adresboekje.nl

Yes; the spelling will have changed by then. :^)

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @

That used to be different in the days when Hewlett and Packard were alive. I have my doubts that a product such as the trusty HP11C here on my desk could be designed today. 15 (!) years on the first set of batteries.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Have you ever done serious analog circuit debugging with a TDS220? Pretty sure your opinion would significantly change.

They don't make'em like the 7000 series no more.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Yes, but it seems tough to find US dealers that sell their higher end (200MHz). Maybe Agilent doesn't really want them to. That would directly cut into their DSO3xxx series sales. Yesterday I ordered the Instek at Newark but upgraded to the four-channel, the GDS-2204. Pretty good pricing but you have to be patient because they are shipped from Farnell in Europe.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

By then it'll probably be "siprit" :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

I know a guy who is a Fellow of United Technologies because he designed something that nobody told him to design. At P&W headquarters in Hartford, there's a bunch of framed portraits: Founder, Chairman, Board, CEO, and him!

John

For the person looking for a review on the Instek. I just purchased a

2102 in May, I bought it from here.

I found a cheaper site on the web and they matched, which knocked another hundred off the price. For the money which was a little over $1500 Canadian when all is said and done I think it's a good scope. The sales and tech team at Instek Canada as well as there main site have answered questions promptly so no complaints there.

I have no professional experience just high school and 4 years of college to form an opinion on test equipment brands. But I can say in my final year of college we got a bunch of new TDS2100 and nobody particularly cared for them, me included. Everyone used the old analog TEK's and the older DSO TEK.

The Instek scopes use interleaving so when you read 1G/S this is only obtainable when one channel is active, so if you have both channels active each channel is capable of 500M/S. This hasn't posed any problems to me. The sampling rate is tied to the sweep rate, this is common in scopes in this price range. The TEK I think oversamples at

1G/S irrespective of the sweep rate. If they were to change one thing that is what I would like to see a manual option to selecting the sampling rate.The probes that come with it are crap though GTP100A.

There is no question there are superior scopes out there but in the 1 to 2 thousand dollar price range you could do far worse.

Also as a side note I've seen request for reviews on sellers my experience with tequipment is so/so they forgot to send the free wattmeter, never returned emails. I still get emails from them asking me to view there quote online? But in there defence that could just be a dipshit I dealt with initially, when I talked to someone else Dominick Rinelli I got better service, so it's a crap shoot.

If you're thinking of one of those wittig scopes well you can read this and draw your own conclusion. This is a memo sent out to distributors of there product (DSO's). Just a warning if you see a used one on ebay.

"Dear Wittig Distributor,

I would like to inform you and your team that I had to file for insolvency for Wittig Technologies AG last friday, due to over-indebtedness and inability to pay.

Because of the predictable financial pressure back in January this year, we were forced to ship the product initially with features gray-out. However, we were confident that we can update the firmware and make all the features available to the customer at a later stage. This was a tremendous mistake, we know today.

We are working on changing the general conception on how the firmware is built up and try to improve the product in the coming months. The product then will become available again later this year with a concequent reduction in pricing, to be able to compete on the markets.

We have the following problems with the existing version:

1) Display Refresh Rate is too slow

- We expect to double the refresh rate on the next release

2) Math is not working correctly

- We have improved and will become available on next release

3) FFT is not previewed implement before the end of this year

- We will reduce the price as a concequence

4) 10mV is highest sensitivity in future releases

- We will reduce the price as a concequence

5) Pluse Width Function was not implemented

- We have improved and will become available on next release

6) Hold Off Function was not implemented

- We have improved and will become available on next release

7) Quick Measurements and Average was not working stable

- We have improved and will become available on next release

8) The general interface controls have been completely redesigned It is now working very stable. However, the user have to learn and accept our rotary switch behavior.

- We have improved and will become available on next release

9) All the functions have been in generally improved. 10) A reviewed data sheet with new list pricing will become available as soon as the product is ready for shipment.

We no longer compare our product with respective competitors on the markets.

As soon as we have found a way how to continue our business, we will support you a better way we did in the past. We will definitely replace against new all units in the field. We will try to compensate damages to your sales and reputition by extra discounts we will offer then.

I will be available uniquely via email for any questions you might have. Our phone numbers are no longer in operation neither is our website.

Greetings, Thomas"

Well, this time Newark had it for a few Dollars less ;-)

Almost all DSO cut the sample rate because they don't want to spend the money for several ADCs I guess. That's ok though, at least for me.

Especially for a scope you may take on the road a lot. I'd rather not schlepp around a $10k scope.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

We've got a DSO6014A here. It seems pretty nice, though I've not used it much personally.